Re: Middle school readiness

Banty <Banty_member@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20020711213420data_trunc_sys.shtml

Thank you thank you thank you - I couldn't find that.

When I tried to follow the drink-always and 8 oz. eight times business regarding
water, all I got was a whole lot of clear urine, and frequently. And an awful
bloated feel and a gag reflex that started rebelling. I decided I must be part
desert rat, and my kid must take after the desert rat side of the family ;-),
and now after years we find out the truth and that silliness is starting (just
starting...) to Go Away.

It's one of those self-reinforcing pseudo-scientific trusisms that have get
circulated and re-circulated (and never passed out of the system soon enough
;-).

When my children were in school, they were not allowed to bring water
or anything to consume in the classroom and neither was the teacher
allowed to have anything. And when *I* was in school, we were not
allowed to have a drink when we came in from recess because we might -
I don't know - colic or something. We might be able to sneak a sip as
we went by, but if we tried anything else we were yelled at. It
sounds like the pendulum has swung.

If thirst were an inadequate indicator of dehydration state, we'd be one
non-existant species. If anything, it would be TOO sensitive (like our
famine-guarding hunger urges).

My problem is that when I feel thirsty there often is not place that I
can find water to drink. I am frequently thirsty when driving, and I
don't want to stop and get a soft drink. So I take water with me when
I am out and about. (No problem at home of course). I don't always
want it, but I like to have it if I do feel thirsty.

As I said, I don't care if the kids have a water bottle, and One often
does. But the whole hydration myth -- the need to have a bottle of
water at all times -- does drive me a bit batty. I've no idea why it
drives me battier than other things, though; as myths go, I'll concede
that its a relatively harmless one. ;-p


<snip>
Next myth to go: (I'd better run and hide after this one) - that not a single
square inch of skin shall be ever ever exposed to more than an incidental minute
of sunlight and the slightest tan color is a sure sign of Permanent Skin Damage
and Incipient CANCER. (Yeah, I'm gonna hear a hue and cry over that one...)

As far as tan color - my skin is so fair (almost transparent) that a
tan color on me is like some people's normal un-tanned skin tone. DH
has the kind of skin that just gets controlled red and never tans. And
two of my dd's have the same type skin.

I've had two melanomas removed, and dh has had a big one removed from
his forearm and a skin graft. One of my daughters has also some
incipient stage one. So while the hue and cry may be excessive, it is
probably better than letting kids get broiled several times a summer
as dh did.

My mom was very careful with us - we did not go out in the sun without
protection. My skin damage (of which I have some) came from teaching
swimming on the side of a pool in Florida in the summer in a bathing
suit (after that happened, I wore long trousers and a T-shirt over my
bathing suit plus a big brimmed hat), and from a camping trip to the
OBX as a teenager where I got a sunburn on top of a peeling burn on my
shoulders. That's not where my melanomas were however. One is on my
shin and one is in the middle of my back.

In spite of all the lectures, my dd#2 who lives in FL is tan. And so
are her kids. Actually my arms are tan from the elbow down, and I can
see the damage to the skin on my hands although I've not gotten burned
in ages.

.

Relevant Pages